Menu

Month: December 2014

Last year, the Christmas posting was a whimsical assessment of the fun of getting drunk and enjoying Doctor Who.

Let’s face it, 2014 has been less than whimsical. It’s been, in fact, less than joyous. Whilst good stuff has been happening this year (for some of us), random internet sampling, mixed with generalised awfulness, has given me a pretty clear indication that all my nearest (and not so nearest, thanks to the POWER OF THE INTERNET™) and dearest have been suffering pretty hard this year. I can only blame it on an alignment of dark stars that overshadow the fates of the righteous – or possibly just random coincidence.

WHATEVER the cause, it’s time we did something about it. I don’t have the capacity to send round a singing Christmas gorilla-gram to cheer people, or even to think of something appropriately comforting to say. It’s easy to mouth platitudes, but it’s also easy to see that for all the good we have going on (and there is some good), we can’t necessarily resolve all our problems. All we can do is help each other manage them.

To that end, I propose that if you’re reading this, you buy someone a beverage. Not necessarily alcoholic (though of course, why not?). Buy yuletide cocoa, or eggnog – or an orange juice, milkshake, classic Coke or even that good old reliable: a cup of coffee. A lot of people are doing it tough financially, so I’m not proposing you do more than one, nor that you means test it – just find someone, and without solicitation, offer to pick them up a drink in an appropriate context. Nothing picks me up quite so much as the idea that random acts of kindness do happen – it helps remind us that they might be just around the corner for each of us.

Please don’t use it as an excuse for flirting (unless the other party is giving you clear consent for that, I’m not trying to start a burst of cliched pick-ups here). You’re welcome to buy it in rounds with your friends – sometimes an excuse to gather together and look after one another is just as valuable as something for a stranger.

Let’s try and end 2014 with a little bit more grace than it’s shown us, eh?